Intech Credit Union, which has assets of around $300m, serves 13,000 customers working in the technology sector and has several branches in Sydney and Melbourne.

Bank Australia managing director Damien Walsh said the proposed merger will establish Intech Bank as a division of Bank Australia targeting people employed in the technology sector throughout Australia’s eastern states.

“By merging, Intech will leverage the greater scale and capabilities on hand at Bank Australia to support its expansion agenda and ambition to become the preferred banking partner for people employed across Australia’s technology sector many of whom align closely to our own target market,” Mr Walsh said.

“Our strategy will be to use Bank Australia’s resources and customer-owned banking expertise to assist Intech reach out to greater numbers of people working in the technology sector with the offer of a more attractive customer-owned and responsible banking alternative to an investor-owned bank.”

“Of course our customers come from all walks of life including science; research, engineering and education all of which closely align to the technology sector,” he added.

Over the next several months Bank Australia will be constructing merger and business plans in readiness for a successful merger vote by Intech Credit Union customers. Due to the relatively small size of Intech compared to Bank Australia, Mr Walsh said there is no need for his customers to cast a vote.

“Once supported by Intech’s customers, the formal merger of the two organisations is expected to be completed in early 2017,” he said.

“I look forward to sharing further details on our merger with Intech over coming months.”